Forbidden Pistachios and a Very Long Project: Jimmy Carter Aides Share Tales

Over two decades, Beth Davis and Lauren Gay worked very closely with the former president. Ahead of the first anniversary of his death, they share what it was like.

Beth Davis and Lauren Gay were two of former President Jimmy Carter’s closest aides for almost two decades. They had never given an interview to a reporter before. Now, almost a year after his death, they were ready to show and tell.

They sat in the president’s old office at the Carter Center, surrounded by artifacts of their departed boss. His light blue armchair. His compact disc of Bob Dylan’s “Blood on the Tracks.” His jar of water from the North Pole, a gift to Carter from the crew of the USS Jimmy Carter submarine. As the afternoon light slanted in through the windows, the stories poured out.

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